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Vault of Souls
Dimension of Souls An hour following the events in the throne room, the group, consisting of the King of Souls, Seireitou Kawahiru, Raian Getsueikirite, Echo, and Hikaru Kurosaki stood before a massive door on the end of the Greater Palace. They had all fallen eerily silent upon reaching the door, perhaps finally struck by the gravity of the situation they were about to partake in finally hitting them. The King surveyed each of them in silence for a few moments before finally breaking the silence to make his announcement; "Through this door is the Reitoro which you seek." he explained. "Be warned though, whatever trials you face beyond, you will face alone. I will not journey with you." Seireitou snorted, "We've never needed you to hold our hands before. Whatever's in there, we'll be read for it." he snapped. "Have it your way." the King shrugged. With a flick of his wrist, spiritual pressure flooded the room and the massive door they stood in front of began to slowly slide open. The very walls of the palace seemed to tremor as the door slid into position, clearly indicating that it was a door of unbelievable weight. As the door continued to open, a Garganta-like portal began to reveal itself. Wind gusted into the room from the portal, ruffling Seireitou's long silver hair. "There's the portal." the King declared. "You may enter." Without hesitation, Raian was the first to leap into the dimensional entryway, immediately taking off running as he landed within the gateway. Seireitou was close behind him, followed by Hikaru and Echo, whilst the King watched from outside the portal. "Just like the old days, eh guys?" Hikaru said cheerfully. "Yeah, off to save one of our old friends in some god-forsaken dimension. We got the pick of the lot." Echo replied, his words laced with sarcasm. Seireitou looked comically annoyed, "Hey, rumor has it you need a soul to receive a soul from this place. I say we leave Echo behind when this is all done." he snapped comically. "HEY!" Echo shouted, "If anyone should be left behind, it should be you, grey-hairs!" "See what I mean?" Seireitou retorted, flashing Echo a devilish glare. "Shut it, you two! We're here!" Raian announced. Sure enough, there was a bright light at the end of the portal. Within seconds, the four leaped out of the end of the portal onto a large translucent stairway in the midst of a dimension seemingly filled with clouds. "Is this it?" Echo asked, momentarily annoyed. "How am I supposed to know? Never been here before." Seireitou snapped back. "This is definitely the place." Hikaru spoke up. "Can't you two feel that reiatsu?" "Yeah," Raian chimed in. "This place is alive with reiatsu." "How are we ever supposed to find Mashū with so much reiatsu interference in this place? It'll be hard enough to find each other here, much less him, with all this reiatsu." Echo confessed. "That's easy," Seireitou chimed in, stepping up and placing a hand on Raian's shoulder. "Raian will raise his reiatsu as high as it will go. Mashū will, without a doubt, notice it and come to investigate." "Okay," Echo continued. "But, there is another problem. Assuming we do find Mashū, who's soul are we going to trade for his?" "Wait, you guys were serious?" Hikaru blurted out. "We really have to give a soul to get Mashū's?" "Yes." Raian replied. "I learned a lot about the Reitoro the last time I was a member of the Royal Guard. It is possible to retrieve souls from this place, but, in order to do so, you must pay with the same number of souls." "Don't worry." a voice rang out from the portal the four had just exited from. Raian snapped his head around to see who it was; Yūbi and Yūga Shikizaki. "Yūbi... Yūga...!" he exclaimed. "How did the two of you...-?!" "I brought them here." Seireitou admitted solemnly, "But I had them wait to enter until after we had gotten here. I didn't want you to shoot them down without giving them a chance to explain themselves." "What do you mean, explain themselves?" Raian asked, genuinely confused. "Remember when we met?" Yūbi asked. "I told you. Yūga and I were once one soul, but, when our soul went to be reincarnated from this place, it split, and we became 'soul twins'. That means we both equal one soul. You helped us a lot in Rider City, now its our turn to help you." "But..." Raian began. "No buts," Seireitou snapped. "They are making a sacrifice for you. Honor their sacrifice by defeating Akujin." Raian dropped his head, almost as though ashamed. He couldn't believe that two of his friends were essentially having to die in order to make this happen. Too many had already died for the sake of Akujin's war. He felt angry, but above all, incredibly saddened that this war would now claim two more lives. "Don't feel bad." Yūga spoke up. "We wouldn't be here if we didn't want to do this for you." Raian nodded solemnly, "Alright then. Let's find Mashū." Solemn Debt Raian stood at the edge of the stairwell, inhaling a large amount of air once before exhaling it all at once. Then, without warning, he began to execute Seireitou's plan. A tremendous volume of reiatsu erupted from his body, funneling upward before spreading out into the sky of the Reitoro, drowning out the sea of reiatsu surrounding them, as well as the clouds that had previously obscured their vision of the world. Hikaru and Echo both looked on with awe. "When did Raian become this powerful?" Echo asked, his curiosity peaked. Seireitou, arms folded, snickered at his question, "You and Hikaru have been in retirement this whole time, so I don't expect either of you to know. Once we were the four Yonkō, equal to each other in power, but that time has gone. Raian and I... well, we never retired. Our training continued. Our battles continued. Just as we fight for the soul of the worlds today, we've been fighting for the souls of our comrades for years before this. The plane in which our strength reaches is far above that which you two stand on now." he explained. Raian's reiatsu continued to rise for several seconds more, before he was snapped out of his concentration by something. His eyes darted to the right as if he had spotted something in movement. "Something's coming this way!" Raian declared. Out the clouds, a dark figure broke loose, dashing past Raian and into the midst of the group, landing flat on its feet on the translucent stairwell they stood on. The soul was dressed in a white shihakushō and hakama, possessing long black hair; though it was shorter than Raian's own black hair. It was the soul of Mashū Getsueikirite. "Raian...?" he said, his voice barely audible over the roaring of Raian's wind-like reiatsu. "Is that really you?" Despite expecting this turn out, Raian could only look on wide-eyed, unable to get a word out of his mouth. All at once, his reiatsu began to lower, and the effects of it on the word's environment became less and less noticeable. Mashū turned so that his elder brother was now completely within his field of vision. For a moment, time itself seemed to slow down. The group was completely silent as the two brothers reunited for the first time in the weeks since the war had began and Mashū had died. Slowly, he approached Raian until the two were standing mere inches apart. Raian placed a hand on his head and ruffled his hair. "Yeah, its me." he simply replied. "We came to get you outta here." "But why?" Mashū asked, desperation in his voice. "I'll only get killed again. I was defenseless against that Arrancar!" "That won't happen a second time." Raian replied, staring out at the world beyond the stairwell. "We'll get stronger. Next time, you won't need me to protect you." "Look, I hate to break up this touching reunion," Echo butted in, sarcastic disgust in his voice. "But we have what we came for. Let's get out of this place. Its too... happy for me." "Yes, because god forbid someone should be happy around Echo." Seireitou quipped sarcastically. "Looks like those two never change." Mashū sighed, facepalming. "He has a point, though." Yūbi said, speaking up. "You guys should get on your way. You have things to do back at the Palace." "He's right." Hikaru replied, "We have to pay Akujin back for all of this pain he's caused." "Palace... Akujin... What's going on?!" Mashū asked, genuinely concerned. "I'll fill you in when we're back in our world." Raian replied, patting him on the shoulder. "Then let's go." Seireitou declared, turning with the group at his back and heading towards the portal in the sky. Recovery Minutes later, the group once again emerged from the portal in the Palace, where the King was waiting patiently for them. "Hmmm, I see a face I don't recognize." the King noted. "I guess that means your journey was a success." "Yeah, now point me to the nearest Korean restaurant." Seireitou rudely interrupted. "I feel like I haven't eaten in weeks." "Ironic you should mention that..." the King replied, his eyes comically narrowing as a figure approached from behind him. "Seireitou-chaaaan! Raian-chaaaaan! So good to see you both again!" a female voice rang out through the hall. Seireitou and Raian's eyes also comically narrowed as a slender female figure emerged from behind the King. It was the form of Kirio Hikifune, a former member of the Royal Guard. Her reference to Seireitou and Raian as "-chan" had Echo trying hard to containing his amused laughter. "Oh look," Seireitou said sarcastically, "Boobs with legs." "Feel pain!" Hikifune shouted, slamming Seirietou in the face with a massive spoon, which sent him flying out of a nearby window. With this, Echo could no longer contain his laughter. He burst into bemused fits of laughter as he watched Seireitou fall out of sight from the tremendous blow to his face. Hikifune herself looked satisfied, while Raian, Mashū, Hikaru, and the King all looked on with comically confused faces on. "Raian-chan, the King tells me you're rejoining the Guard!" Hikifune smile, seeming quite pleased by the news. "Yeah, that's the plan." Raian replied, still somewhat confused by the pace of the events taking place. "Then I suppose I should show you to your new home!" she shouted excitedly. "The city you ruled during your last stay has gone under some changes, but you should find it just as comfortable. I'll feed you guys while we're there." "What about Sei?" Hikaru chimed in. "I batted him in that direction. He should land about the time we arrive." Hikifune giggled to herself. "Then I suppose we should make haste. No point in wasting any time." Raian chuckled himself. End...